[The] path of self-purification is hard and steep. [One] has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.

Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Source: The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas (Vintage Spiritual Classics), Pages: 62